Large-scale damage to the wheat crop from 'yellow rust' – a fungal disease – in the lower areas of the state, including Mandi, Kangra, Una and some parts of Hamirpur districts, has raised an alarm among farmers. High humidity in winters with fluctuating temperatures through the cold months acted as favourable conditions for the disease. “Immense damage of wheat crop has been reported in Mandi district due to yellow rust attack and...

The national level monitors of the Union ministry of rural development, probing irregularities into the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) received several complaints. These were with reference to the implementation of the scheme in the state, including misuse of funds by two ministers. The committee will tour different parts of the state to probe irregularities and receive complaints from aggrieved parties. While one team is in Hyderabad,...

In a system where half the litigants must necessarily lose their cases and where most complaints against judges are frivolous, the Bill, if implemented, would mark the beginning of the end of the judiciary. The last two decades have marked the extraordinary rise of India. This has however been tinged with cynicism about our major democratic institutions and a pessimism about their future. The judiciary, which till now has been looked...

Taking a serious note of the increasing complaints of filling of ponds by land sharks, the state government has issued strict directives to the departments concerned to prepare a list of water bodies and initiate measures for their renovation. Talking to media on Monday, principal secretary (revenue and relief) KK Sinha said the state government had issued directives to all districts to prepare a list of water bodies on the basis...

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) recently in New Delhi, India gathered more than 900 participants for an international conference to examine ways that agriculture can enhance the health and nutritional status of poor people in developing worlds. Scholars, Politicians and activists during the conference tried to exploit the nexus between agriculture, nutrition and health. Most people would say that agriculture is for growing food, and on one level, they are...